Despite a voluminous number of studies documenting the nature and extent of teen methamphetamine use in the United States, relatively few studies have provided a comprehensive portrait of the risk and protective factors associated with adolescent meth use. One salient omission is the lack of studies that provide insight into the well-documented race gap in teen methamphetamine use: Native American teens are at much greater risk of use and abuse of methamphetamines than non-Hispanic whites. This fact is exacerbated by evidence that meth use is associated with a heightened risk of engaging in behaviors such as IV drug use and unprotected sexual practices that are correlated with contracting HIV/AIDS. Indeed, research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides evidence that Native Americans are at a heightened risk of contracting HIV/AIDS relative to non-Hispanic whites. Clearly, there are important gaps in our knowledge and understanding of why methamphetamine use/abuse is distributed differentially among adolescents, and there is a need for research that specifically focuses on explaining the "race-gap" between Native American and non Hispanic white teens in America with regards to both meth use and the associations between meth use and behaviors associated with risk of exposure to HIV/AIDS. The present study, by addressing these knowledge gaps, will facilitate understanding into why the race gap in such behavior exists and can direct targeted intervention and prevention programs that address such health disparities between Native American and non-Hispanic white teens. The long-term goal of the research team is to continue to explore how racial and economic stratification serves to produce health disparities, in order to reduce race and economic based disparities. The objective of this application is threefold: a) to identify the social risk and protective factors associated with both meth use generally and those factors that serve to delineate racial/ethnic differences in use specifically;b) to apply the stress process model/General Strain Theory to expand our understanding of both meth use and racial differences in use;and c) to explore the association between meth use and risky sexual behaviors and how race serves as a potential moderator. The central hvpothesis of this application is that differences in stress exposure will predict both individual and race-based variation in meth use, abuse, and related risky behaviors (IV drug use/unprotected sex) with personal and social resources serving to moderate the stresssubstance use association. The plan is to fill this knowledge gap by pursuing the following two specific aims: a) utilize the stress process modei/GST framework to identify the social risk and protective factors associated with the initiation, use, and abuse/dependence of meth use among both males and females, non-Hispanic whites and Native American adolescents who attend public schools in Montana;and b) evaluate the stress process modei/GST framework as an explanation for predicting risky sexual practices and the potential role of race and meth use as moderators. In order to accomplish these objectives, one wave of data will be collected, entailing the use of a self-administered questionnaire of a targeted sample of approximately 900 ninth and tenth grade boys and girls attending three high schools in Montana. The proposed research is significant because it is expected to provide fundamental knowledge necessary in order to construct efficacious interventions and prevention efforts designed to reduce the adolescent Native American-white race gap in meth use, and risky behaviors associated with HIV/AIDS.